Social class and happiness: A cross-country comparison

Many have argued that ´social classes are dead´ because they do no longer explain important life outcomes. However, when one compares average subjective well-being (SWB) levels across social classes, it becomes evident that in almost every country, individuals in the upper classes are, on average, happier than individuals in the lower classes. However, the size of the happiness gap varies significantly across countries; in other words, class determines SWB to a greater extent in some places than others (e.g. Russia or Bulgaria versus Nordic countries). This paper hopes to understand why it is so. This is important because SWB is an important life outcome and a relevant component of the quality of life that is unequally distributed in the population. This is inevitable to some extent since SWB depends on biology and other things that are within the individual realm, however and important part of this inequality is class based. To the extent that it is so, public policy may be able to do something about it. Hence understanding where the gap comes from is crucial. This paper will shed light on this. Several multi country datasets will be used. A parallel analysis with the ESS and the WVS will be carried out that will allow a greater and more varied sample as well as replication for some cases. A multilevel framework is applied so that happiness at the individual level is explained by individual level variables (class among them) and contextual or country level variables. Various happiness theories such as livability (Veenhoven and Ehrhardt 1995; Grinde 2005) and comparison theories (Michalos 1985, Easterlin 1974) guide the selection of individual and country level covariates.